Minimally-invasive surgery offers benefits to patients through the use of small sized incisions which cause less pain, less trauma, and shorter healing periods than larger incisions. However, minimally-invasive surgery requires that the surgeon cope with little or no direct tactile information and reduced visual information of the tissue at the surgical site. It has been demonstrated that even partial restoration of the sense of touch improves performance in teleoperation and virtual environments (Kontarinis et al., Rosen et al., Okamura et al., Pai et al.). Systems designed to improve human performance in surgical applications often feature visual feedback (Dario et al.). For example, during arthroscopic surgery wherein a fibre optic scope is inserted into a joint to allow visualization of internal structures, a surgeon views the anatomy via one incision and inserts a surgical instrument through another small incision.
Surgery may be required in regions that cannot be seen arthroscopically; in such cases, a surgeon must rely completely on tactile feedback obtained through the hand via a surgical instrument. In such cases, arthroscopic instruments which improve tactile feedback may be employed. One such instrument commonly used has a metal tip on the end of a handle. Many different shapes of tips are available, but the arthroscopic hook, with a tip bent to a 90° angle, is particularly useful. With such an instrument, a surgeon is able to probe tissues to find damage and anomalies and to perform surgical procedures.
There is, however, a need for a surgical instrument that improves tactile feedback to the user.